Rod Heyd

This is an image of Comet Lemmon acquired on the evening of October 26, 2025. Gear: Askar ACL200 astrograph lens, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, ZWO AM5 tracking mount. This image is the result of 179, 10 second exposures, processed in PixInsight with a few small touch-ups in GIMP.

First image I've acquired in a while. This is the result of 30 minutes of exposure time on Comet Lemmon acquired on Sunday. Gear details in the ALT-Text #Astrophotography

Image of M101, the Pinwheel galaxy. Acquired over three nights in May/June 2025. Total exposure time 9 hours, 45 minutes using an Askar 103APO refractor at 700mm focal length, and a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera. Processed in PixInsight.

M101, The Pinwheel galaxy. Total exposure time: 9 hours, 45 minutes. #Astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

This is an image of the whirlpool galaxy acquired in April of 2025 using an Askar 103 APO telescope at f/6.8, and a ZWO asi2600MC pro camera.

Here's the results of 12 hours and 24 minutes of imaging M51 - the Whirlpool galaxy. #Astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

My second attempt to image the "Leo Triplet." A small group of interacting galaxies about 35 million light years away. I didn't get the framing right on this one, and didn't really pick up the tidal tail of stars coming off of NGC 3628 (the galaxy on the right). #Astrophotography

This is a n image of M13, a globular star cluster in the constellation of Hercules. The cluster contains several hundred thousand stars.

Globular star cluster M13, acquired on April 17, 2025. #Astrophotography

Image of M95 acquired over the March 20 and 21, with an askar 103 APO refractor and an asi2600 mc pro camera.

My latest image: 9 hours on M95, a barred spiral galaxy located 33 million light years away in the constellation Leo. #Astrophotography

1-millisecond test photo of the Moon taken this evening (2025-03-09), with an Askar 103 APO telescope and an ASI2600 MC pro camera.

Test shot of the moon this evening, in preparation for imaging the eclipse on Friday. This may turn out to be a bust though, as the weather forecast for Friday is kind of dodgy. #Astrophotography

Yeah, the stretch on this didn't come out quite like I wanted, and I wound up compromising with something that was less aggressive. I'm probably going to try restretching using GHS instead and see how it turns out. I may need more integration time to for the hydrogen emission in M82.

This is an image the galaxies M81 and M82 acquired on February 21 and 22. The image is derived from 177, 180 second exposures, for a total exposure time of 8 hrs & 51 minutes. Equipment used: Askar 103 APO telescope, ZWO 2600MC pro cooled camera, ZWO AM5 mount with an ASIAir Plus controller. Processed in PixInsight.

Here's my first image of the Spring 2025 galaxy season. The famous Bodes' Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82). M81 is the nice spiral galaxy, while M82 is the irregular galaxy on the right, undergoing a starburst triggered by an interaction with M81. #Astrophotography

That's an excellent point. I forgot about the corrector on the EdgeHD. So decision made. I'll be skipping the Meade SCT sale. I'll wait and see what else comes along.

I'm kind-of tempted by this, although all I really want is the OTA. The C8 Edge OTA-only is going for ~$1,600, while they have a fork-mounted LX90 8" OTA sans tripod for $1,000. Not a bad deal, but I'll have to de-fork it.

This is an image of the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree cluster in the constellation Monoceros, acquired on February 4th, 2025.

Here is my latest image, acquired last week, NGC 2264, the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree cluster. #Astrophotography

Optics: Askar 103 APO refractor at 700mm focal length+field flatner.

Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro.

90, 180 sec. subframes, stacked and processed in PixInsight.

An image of the Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros, acquired on January 23, 2025. This image is the result of 90, 180 second exposures acquired with a ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro camera attached to an Askar 103 APO telescope. Processed in PixInsight.

This is my first attempt at imaging the Rosette Nebula, acquired on January 23, 2025. The nebula is 5,000 light years away from Earth, located in the constellation Monoceros, east of the star Betelgeuse in Orion. #Astrophotography

An image of the Horsehead and Flame nebulas near the start Alnitak in Orion.

After my test shots from a couple days ago, I attempted my first "real" imaging run last night of the nebula complex near the star Alnitak in Orion. This is the end result of 4.5 hours of imaging with the new gear. #Astrophotography

Rosette Nebula

Horsehead and Flame Nebulas

Orion Nebula

A few uncalibrated, unprocessed, single frames to test out a new camera (asi2600mc pro) and telescope (askar 103 apo). So far, I am really happy with the results. This camera has much, much, much better red response than my old Canon 70D #astrophotography

This is an image of the North American and Pelican nebulas. The data for this image was acquired in September of 2024.

Here's an image of the North American and Pelican nebulas, acquired back in September. This was supposed to be a work in progress until my camera died last month. So I'll be starting over with a new (and better camera) later this year.

#Astrophotography

I gotta say, the Seestars seem to take far better images than they have any right to. I'm not about to give up my rig for one of these, but for anyone that is just getting started, these are really great.

I am an astrophotographer, and I am also on the operations teams for NASA's HiRISE camera and ESA's CaSSIS camera.

Yes

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

This is a picture of a roadrunner perched in an ocotillo in a desert park in Tucson.

Here's a picture of a roadrunner in an ocotillo "bush" in desert park in Tucson Arizona. Taken on a hike into a park near my home. #photography #nature #Tucson

My first post is a pictures of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, that I took about a year ago. This is a combined stack of about 3 hours of 60 second exposures taken with a Canon 70D on a star tracker mount and processed in PixInsight. Enjoy!